Shipp: Chancellor, welcome to Dawg Country

Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2001

Stephen Portch will be leaving soon. The Board of Regents is near the end of its task of picking his successor. The incoming chancellor of the University System of Georgia will face a mountain of unresolved issues.

Bill

Shipp

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The tenure of Portch included the best of times and worst of times for Georgia's system of higher learning. Enrollment soared throughout the system. Gov. Zell Miller's HOPE scholarship program turned Georgia into an academic rose garden in a field of southeastern weeds.

Still, problems persisted. The costly switch from a quarter system to semesters sent shock waves through the system. Enrollment of full-time students declined. Part-time students, hoping to work on the outside and earn a degree at the same time, found that task nearly impossible under the new structure.

The new chancellor inherits much to build on, which Portch stated. But the toughest questions Porch's successor may face: What to do about the University of Georgia? What is it? And what isn't it?

First, it is the flagship academy of the state. Its enrollment also is bursting at the seams. Its standards for admission are so rigid that only about one of five applicants is accepted. UGA President Michael Adams says the university is on its way to becoming a stellar research university.

Some leading old grads contend the great land- and sea-grant school has a responsibility to bring higher education to as many Georgians as possible, not just the quirky-looking guys with their eyes glued to microscopes.

But the university has failed dismally to construct a student body that is even remotely close to a reflection of the state's population. The quest for diversity has encountered one roadblock after another. The courts say UGA can't give admission ''points'' for race to increase black enrollment. The number of black Georgians qualified to attend UGA without ''points'' is microscopic.

Besides, if UGA dropped all subjective registration criteria and went to a merit-only system, the Athens campus would quickly become a school for Caucasian and Asian females. That is hardly reflective of the state itself.

A merit system of enrollment also will aggravate the growing perception that UGA is becoming an elitist institution. And, elitism does not play well in the Georgia General Assembly.

The idea UGA is going to become an international hub of genetic research seems absurd to some. How can a university that includes no medical college hope to make strides or gain much attention in biological research?

Attempts to arrange a marriage between UGA and the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta have failed so far. The new chancellor, presumably with the aid of Gov. Roy Barnes, needs to get the UGA-MCG merger on track.

Meanwhile, the university is on the brink of kicking off a record $600 million capital campaign in the midst of an economic downturn. President Adams has angered at least part of the football alumni by firing the head football coach and bringing in a new guy, who is now off to a losing start. Pleasing the football alum is a big part of raising big bucks.

So, welcome, Chancellor Whoever You May Be. If you believe the problems of UGA require Solomonic wisdom, you haven't seem anything yet. Just wait till we tell you about the other 33 universities and colleges in the system -- and explain to you how Georgia Tech, one of the toughest high-tech schools in the country, is able to field a topflight, professional-looking football team with almost no academic failures. That remarkable feat is sure to attract your attention.

This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Wednesday, September 19, 2001.